Thursday, May 10, 2018

2018 ARBCA General Assembly

The 2018 ARBCA General Assembly has come to a close. It was a wonderful time of encouragement and edification. The members of Community Baptist Church of Fargo, North Dakota were great hosts, making all feel comfortable and treating us to wonderful meals. The worship was Christ-centered and the singing was robust. Pastor Doug VanderMeulen shared that this was the largest gathering of Reformed Baptists in the history of North Dakota.

We were edified by the preaching of Dr. Liam Goligher, Pastor of the Tenth Presbyterian Church of Philadelphia, who preached on the Superiority of Christ from Hebrews. The schedule included morning devotions followed by corporate prayer. Sam Waldron presented our annual Circular Letter on the subject of "The Biblical Doctrine of Death and Resurrection," zeroing in on Paul's words in 2 Corinthians 4, "Looking at things which cannot be seen." Jerry Slate gave a biographical sketch on the life of 18th Century pastor, Samuel Pearce. Pearce was one of the original signatories forming the Bible Missionary Society in 1792. Our Theological Discussion this year was on the topic of "Middle Knowledge" as formulated by the sixteenth century theologian, Luis de Molina. The open discussion was preceded by an excellent introduction by Chuck Rennie who described the doctrine as failing to take into account the perfection of God as the first cause of all things. As our Confession states: "Although in relation to the foreknowledge and decree of God, the first cause, all things come to pass immutably and infallibly; so that there is not anything befalls any by chance, or without His providence . . ." (LBC 5:2).

We heard of the ongoing progress of IRBS Theological Seminary. What a blessing to be a part of establishing the first confessional Reformed Baptist Seminary in the world.

We enjoyed reports from the pastors of our six church plants. It was encouraging to hear of God's work in these new churches. They demonstrate the continuing commitment of ARBCA to plant new Confessional, Reformed Baptist churches across our country.

ARBCA received four new churches this year. Each of the pastors gave reports introducing their churches to our assembly. It is exciting to see God continuing to bless our association by adding churches committed to confessional integrity.

God is continuing to richly bless our association of churches. This year's GA was filled with an air of sincere fellowship and love among brethren committed to the work of advancing the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ across our nation and throughout the whole world. Our association is permeated by men committed to the work of maintaining doctrinal integrity in an atmosphere committed to the propagation of the Gospel.